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This study concerns the relationship between individual characteristics, the propensity to become owners of incorporated firms, and endurance as business owners. We start with a large sample of non-entrepreneurs in 2004 and identify those individuals in this cohort who became and remained majority owners of incorporated businesses between 2005 and 2016. The results indicate that individual characteristics can explain a significant proportion of the variance in the propensity to become owners of incorporated firms as well as business owner endurance. One important finding is that prior income is strongly positively related to becoming and remaining owners of incorporated firms. Unit Licence Agreement

This qualitative study among 591 business students from four European countries investigated cross-country differences in the kind of barriers people perceive to business start-up. In line with institutional theory, the most important perceived barriers in all countries related to regulative structures (lack of money) and cognitive conditions (lack of skills). Normative structures, defined as national culture, did not explain cross-country differences in perceived risk as start-up barrier. In Norway and The Netherlands, students reported risk perceptions more often than in Romania and Russia, whereas the latter countries are known to be more uncertainty avoidant. These results aid in developing a theory of entrepreneurial barriers, which could be used to extend current entrepreneurial intentions theories in order to predict actual start-up behaviour better. Concerning practical implications, results indicate that business start-up can be stimulated through improving regulative and cognitive institutional structures, but national differences need to be taken into account.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the antecedents of business growth expectations and subsequent accumulated sales revenues and employment costs. Hypotheses are derived guided by the theory of planned behaviour.Design/methodology/approachThe authors followed a sample of 207 incorporated businesses started in May/June 2002 over a ten-year period. The hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression analysis.FindingsThe results suggest that the entrepreneurs’ need for social cohesion, subjective norm with regard to business growth and perceived self-efficacy with regard to opportunity recognition are positively and significantly associated with business growth expectations. These expectations, reported at the time of business registration, accurately predict subsequent short-term as well as long-term accumulated sales revenues and labour costs, but this is not the case for entrepreneurs with novel business ideas.Practical implicationsSince entrepreneurs’ attitude, subjective norm and self-efficacy are possible to change, the findings should interest policy makers and educators. Measures aimed at enhancing the antecedents of entrepreneurs’ growth expectations should be considered. The findings that growth expectations have a long-lasting effect on sales and employment stress the importance of entrepreneurs’ subjective expectations for outcomes in new businesses.Originality/valueThere is a lack of studies using a longitudinal design when investigating the link between initial business growth expectations and subsequent firm outcomes. This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature in this regard by using high-quality secondary data to examine firm achievements.